Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas Traditions

There are many things that I love about Christmas... The excitement and anticipation I see in the faces of young children. The delicious smells often coming from my kitchen as I bake goodies to share with friends and family. The beautiful decor that colors my home in red, green, and frosty white. The packages under the tree being handled by little fingers just hoping one has their name on it. The list really could go on and on. However, I do have to say that "traditions" are of my most favorite this time of year.
This year the "Christmas Vacation" at school was really late and the kiddos weren't out until two days before Christmas! This kind of  put a damper on our baking and making that we usually do the week before Christmas. We were able to fit in our annual cookie decorating day though. Every year my mom, who has the absolute best sugar cookie recipe, makes up a ton of  sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies. We all, yep all of us: siblings, significant others, kiddos, foreigners, and of course my parents, sit down and decorate cookies.
 Gobs of frosting and loads of sprinkles coat delicious cookies and cover the table. As a rule, the kids always devour the first cookie they make. Usually there is way too much frosting, but for some reason that doesn't seem to bother them.
It's always a day full of fun, laughs, yummy treats, Christmas music, good family time, and at the end, a ton of sugar coated cookies.

Another super fun tradition we have is "Elf  on the Shelf." My parents got him for the boys last year at Christmastime.  Our elf's name is Fredrick, and for those who don't know, every night he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa on the behavior of the children. Each morning when he returns, he is in a new location and the kids have to find him.

Ok, so the next two traditions are ones that I will most likely take over if my mom ever decides not to do them, because honestly I can't imagine ever having a Christmas without them.  As a child, we used to go to my grandma's on Christmas eve and as long as I can remember, no matter how late we got home, we'd always get to open 2 presents. I remember we would always be so excited, and I still can't quite remember when I finally figured it out that we got the same thing every Christmas eve.  One is an ornament, and the other, my favorite MATCHING JAMMIES!!!
 And though I am 28 now, I don't think one ever outgrows the joy of Christmas Magic. When we were little, we would have to wait until my mom had the hot cocoa made and ready before we could come down the stairs. It seemed to take FOREVER!! but always made it worth it.  When we came downstairs we would get our hot cocoa and head into the living room where the Christmas Magic filled the air.  There were pretty presents everywhere, but my very favorite are the stockings! and still to this day, stockings are my very favorite.... I feel bad for my folks, this year they had 9 stockings to fill!!!!

Merry Christmas!! Always keep traditions in the heart and in the family!


Sunday, November 13, 2011

Birdseed Pie

Today I made bird suet for the first time.  It was very easy and since the birds didn't like my plain sunflower feeder I thought I'd try this out.

Here are the ingredients:

1 cup of crisco
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of peanut butter
1 1/2 cups of quick oats
1 cup of flour
1 cup of birdseed
1 sunflower


Melt the crisco, peanut butter, and sugar in a pan. Chunky peanut butter would have probably been better but creamy is all I had and it worked just fine.
There's a bit of residue from first batch in the pan still, but I was too lazy to wash it out. Melt it til all the ingredients are dissolved then remove from heat. Stir in flour, bird seed, and quick oats.... And like magic, you're all done!
Should be kinda thick... Though my second batch turned out a bit runny since I didn't have enough quick oats. From here I just spooned it onto the sunflower and covered the whole thing. Gave it one last sprinkle of bird seed and headed for the feeder.
Now we just wait to see if the little birdies find their way there.  :) This is also super cute on a pinecone and makes fun projects for the little ones, and cheap but very cool gifts.
Hope you enjoy! :)

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Proud Mama!

A few weeks back (yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted so sorry for that) we had a very awesome thing happen in our family. My boys both were student of the month! It was very exciting and they have bot been working so hard in school. Needless to say, I am a very proud mama.

Ahh look they're so excited... Well Parks is excited, Jared is definitely giving me that "Come on mom my friends are watching" look.

Parker's teacher had a lot of wonderful things to say about him... My favorite "Participates in 'circle time activities' with great class discussion and SUPER SINGING" Hahaha, yes I actually laughed aloud when the lady read that.
Jared's teacher was very brief and to the point with his descriptions. My favorite "Excellent debater." Which also caused a burst of laughter... I'm not sure but I think that's the polite way of saying my son likes to argue.

My very favorite part of this whole day was that their Daddy got to watch the whole thing via FaceTime. Sometimes I really hate technology, but at that instant I loved it.

Monday, October 10, 2011

The Next "Boys (and girl) of Fall"

Yesterday was the first day of flag football practice. We haven't had a program here since I don't know when, so I am very excited that one is starting up again.  Twelve little childrens showed up to participate and eager to learn.  As I sat on the sidelines next to a mom, who is also the coach's wife, we couldn't help but giggle as the coach was explaining all of the "fundamentals" of football. It's X Y Z 1 2 3, this post, that player, this hole, that space, number 2 running a Z pattern... Ha! I was so lost I couldn't even imagine what was going through those little brains of the 12 tiny players.

To my amazement, some actually seemed to get it.  Now, the registration paper said grades 2-5 and it's all Jared has been talking about. Parker would occasionally add how when he "gets big like, Bubba" he could play too. To Parker's surprise they let him join in yesterday.

After reviewing the XYZ and 123s it was finally time to play some football. Now, Jared has been talking about how he wants to be the quarterback and I'm pretty sure it has little to do with throwing the ball and more to do with the "hut hut hike." It's comical to me how "manly" he tries to make his voice. Don't you know, half the threat is in the intensity of the call.  He will have to wait a little to show of his masculine voice because his first assignment is center.


Poor little quarterback... Jared is practically twice his size. This next part was my favorite part of the whole practice...Coaching cheer, I often use the phrase "get friendly." Stunting is very personal and you often end up being very intimate with another squad member. Well the football coach gave these boys the same lecture.

Jared's face pretty much says it all... "What?!" as Coach explains that the quarterback needs to get closer.
We've got it now! QB scopin' out the receivers who are anxiously waiting a pass.
 Ok so maybe anxious wasn't the right word... But they're ready! And don't you just love her shirt!!! After a few passing drills, they split in to teams and started a scrimmage. It was so fun to watch them running all over the place and somewhat resembling the sport of football.  We've decided that Parker might be a little small for quarterback position as he took a snap to the face... Bad news for my boy that doesn't like blood... OUCH!

He bravely removed the shirt to ask "Mom, is it still bleeding?" Yep! Must of been one heck of a snap (which happened to come from his big brother) After a few minutes and a lot of tissue up the nose, he joined the team again. First of many football wounds I'm sure... All and all, was a great first day of practice. We shall return again next Sunday for more football fun!
.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Salsa Makin' Time

At last, our tomato plants have finally started to come around. I've been harvesting for a while now but only a few big red ones at a time, and, of course, a thousand little ones! I'd probably be a bit more excited about those pesky little ones if I actually liked eating tomatoes in their raw state. However, I don't! So many laugh that I've planted nearly 40 tomato plants, yet I really don't like 'em. I do however LOVE to can them. Spaghetti sauce and salsa are amongst my favorites, though this year I am going to try a few other things as well. I'm thinkin' maybe some BBQ sauce, some bloody mary type spicy tomato juice. It seems the list could go on forever. Right now, this is all about the salsa!

Here's a list of the ingredients:
30 lbs of tomatoes                                    9 jalapenos
7 c of chopped onions                              7 serrano chiles
 10 smashed garlic cloves                        3 red hot cherry peppers
ground cumin                                           7 tabasco peppers
pepper                                                       5 New Mexico Big Jim peppers
pickling salt                                              3 lg bell peppers
1/2 cup of vinegar                                     2 bundles of cilantro
1/2 cup of lemon juice                              5 sprig of oregano

Yes, I know, that's a lot of different kinds of peppers, but we have all those varieties in my garden so I couldn't leave any out!


Now... Let's get started!!
First the tomatoes...
Look at them all washed and pretty! I can't wait to get started. First remove the cores and stems. This part isn't too bad though it's kind of time consuming because 30lbs of tomatoes is a lot! Just so you get an idea... Here's a picture (and not the full 30lbs) of the tomatoes... They fill one side of my kitchen sink.
About this time, I figure if I'm gonna go for it, I might as well make a trip to the garden to see if any more have ripened since my last harvest. Good thing too! I came back with a whole 'nother load of em!
Have I mentioned how much I love, love, love my garden!! I do! Just absolutely LOVE it! So after these are washed, stemmed and added to the mix, I get the water boiling on the stove and fix the vacant sink for the ice bath. Toss the tomatoes into the boiling water for a minute or so and then into the ice bath... Makes for easy peeling of those slimy skins.
So, the next step is most definitely my least favorite! Normally, my mom and I are canning together and she does this part while I'm chopping and dicing all the other ingredients... Unfortunately for me, she was working when I decided to make the salsa so this time it's on me... and the back splash, and the cupboards, and my clothes (even though I'm wearing an apron), and eeeewwwwww in my hair... That's right, time to get the seeds out. I find the best way is to just squeeze 'em. Poke some hole in the bottom and let the seeds come out!! Disgusting! Have I mentioned my extreme dislike for tomatoes?? Well this is why! They have nasty, slimy, yucky seeds! As much as I don't like 'em in the tomatoes, I really don't like 'em in my salsa!
Yes, that's nasty! As I mentioned, it's everywhere! How do people even like these things?! But now that the seeds are out and the tomatoes are in the pan, the salsa is finally cookin'!
EEEKKK! I didn't notice the pan was hangin' off the counter. I would have been devastated if that fell! Onto the stove we go and it's time for choppin' the good stuff.
As you can tell, I don't have nearly enough peppers or garlic here. I made 2 more trips to the garden for peppers and one to the shed for garlic, but finally got it right! I chop 'em up pretty coarse so their flavors can mingle with the tomatoes, but eventually I'm going to run it through the food processor so it doesn't matter too much.
Grind some fresh black pepper on it, add the pickling salt, and give it a good healthy sprinkle of cumin. I love cumin powder! Smells kinda like stinky pits, but taste is amazing! My house doesn't smell like armpits though! It smells mighty delicious with this salsa cooking of the stove!
After this cooks down a bit, I run it through the food processor. I am not a fan of chunky salsa (probably has quite a bit to do with not liking tomatoes and onions) so I like to make sure it's all nice and blended.
See how nice that looks all blended, but with little flakes of color.... MMMMM! Note: This is a great time to grab some chips and give it a taste :) Once you approve and I did, well maybe after 10 or 12 chips... so good! As I was saying, once you approve, back on the stove it goes and bring it to a boil again. Chop up the cilantro and mix it in. Now, while it starts to boil, get the jars and water bath going because it's time to get this stuff canned. It processes in the water bath for 35 minutes, then remove to cool over night. I can hear the "pop" of the seals locking down and it's music to my ears! All that work is definitely worth having my own salsa in the pantry. This batch gave me 22 jars of salsa! It may seem like a lot, but I love to share, and of course to have fresh salsa all winter long!

Sooooo pretty!! All I need is some more chips....Yum!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Me vs. Pressure Canner

Today was my first experience ever using a pressure canner/cooker. I'm not gonna lie.... My nerves were a wreck! I just kept waiting for the lid to explode or the pressure gauge to go flying off. I was babysitting a little girl, and every time she dropped a toy on the ground it gave me an instant heart attack!

So after reading the instruction manual 5 times over (just to make sure I didn't miss anything) I started with step 1. Process water in pressure canner to make sure pressure gauge works properly. Ok, so sounds pretty easy.


Now, it's pretty big and heavy and I'm sure could demolish my kitchen but the water process went good! Now for the real test! Today I canned black beans, which actually began last night since the beans had to soak for 12-16 hours. Start with a 2lb bag of black beans. Sort through it to remove all broken beans and foreign debris. Then cover the beans with 3 times the water and let 'em soak!
When I woke up this morning was a big bowl of black liquid. I though the beans had all disintegrated, but after rinsing them I found most of them were still intact! I sorted out the ones that had split and transferred them to a big stock pot, then covered them with water again and started to boil. Once the beans were boiling, and that's not a very pleasant smell, I filled my jars with hot water to get them up to temperature. I used pint jars since I figured was closest in size to a can of beans. Fill the pint jars with beans and pour boiling liquid over beans leaving 1" headspace.

Now, at this point I'm a little worried... Though I can for the preservation and readiness of food, as well as knowing what goes into what I'm eating, I also can because it's fun and I think "home canned food" is so pretty. This however, is not pretty!! I figure, well at least it will be in the cupboard and nobody will see it! So now that the beans are in the jar, I added 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt and used the little spatula to get out all the air bubbles. Put the lid on 'em and we're ready to go into the deadly pressure canner.

I absolutely love this little "jar grabber" I finally invested in. Previously, I was using tongs and a spoon. This is much nicer!

I got 7 pints out of my 2lb bag of beans which was nice!! Now with all the liquids filled and jars in place time for the cookin! This part was kinda tricky! Once the lid is on and sealed you have to get the water really boiling. Once steam is "escaping" the pressure valve, you let it steam for 10 minutes. Then apply the pressure gauge with recommended weight. For these beans it's 10lbs of pressure. So I put the "weight" on and let the pan fill with pressure. Once the gauge is "gently rocking" you start the timer. 75 minutes these bad boys take! That's 75 torturous "please don't let it explode" minutes. That sound like this "rattle rattle rattle hiss hiss hiss clack, rattle rattle rattle hiss hiss hiss clank." I kept thinkin at any minute something was gonna fly off! When the timer dinged at 75 minutes, all parts were still where they belonged. Yay!! At this point I removed from heat and allowed pot to "depressurize." I just want to see if those darn beans turned out! but I was patient and it was worth it!

And look! They got pretty after they cooked! I am a happy canner! It seems now this is only the beginning. Originally, I wanted to make black beans with roasted green chilies, since this is how I normally eat them, but didn't want to go through the trouble of roasting and risk wasting my home grown green chilies. Wasting a $2 bag of beans is one thing, but the delicious peppers from my beautiful garden that's a whole different ball game! Now that I've successfully utilized the pressure canner the fun begins!

Monday, September 26, 2011

New and Improved* Homemade Laundry Soap

My latest adventure started after a discussion with my girlfriend about removing grease spots from clothes. ( I know quite intense conversations I have with my friends... I should write a book of one liners called "You Know You're A Mom When...") Anyhow, she was telling me how great a little dab of Dawn soap works to get out grease stains, so I tried it! And wouldn't you know it worked great!! So got me thinkin'. Here I am spending $25 bucks for laundry soap and my $2 bottle of dawn does a better job.  So I started researching and found a couple different recipes for homemade laundry soap, and it's soooo cheap to make!

So here are the ingredients....

1 box of Borax
1 box of Super Washing Soda
1 box of powdered color-safe bleach
Ivory soap (There were other types of soap you could use, but I like the smell of this one best.)
Purex Crystals softener
You also need a grater and an air-tight container to put it in.




Recipe

1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup powdered color-safe bleach
2 cups finely grated soap (2 bars equals pretty close to 2 cups)
1/2 cup Purex Crystals softener


Mix all the ingredients together until well blended... And that's about it! Easy work there!
It takes 2 Tablespoons of this powdery stuff per large load.



Now for the ultimate test...

Those are my dad's wood cutting jeans. They're covered in dirt, sap, chainsaw grease, and who knows what else. I pre-treated the heavy grease spots with a little dawn, since that's how I'd do it if I were using the regular detergent, and threw them in the wash. Normal cycle, warm/cold water and 2 scoops of the new homemade laundry soap.

And I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome....


As you can see, I could have "spot-treated" a little bit better on one pant leg, but all in all pretty darn clean.

So, I am now hooked on making my own soap! It is quite the cost saver too, though that was not my primary focus when I started this project. Here's the financial comparison if you're interested. My previous laundry soap was costing $0.21 per load and my new homemade, equally as effective laundry soap is costing a whole $0.07 per load! So works great, costs less... That's a good thing in my book. The Purex Crystals definitely add that fresh laundry scent that I was missing. I also am testing out the "color-safe bleach" because I've noticed on my whites the previous recipe wasn't quite getting them white enough.
Happy laundering :)

Next, I think I'll try the dishwasher detergent. :)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The "Great News!"

Today was one of the few days my children actually got to ride the bus home from school. I am not sure why it is so exciting to them, especially since they are on it for a whole 3 minutes, but they were very eager. I met them in the driveway and my little Parker comes sprinting towards me and said "Mom! I have great news!!" So of course, I ask "What's the great news buddy?"
Huge smile spread across his face and he said, "I have homework!!"

I hugged him and laughed, praying he keeps that enthusiasm! You see, he just started Kindergarten this year, this is our very first ever "real homework" and THAT is a big deal!  So he hustled on into the house, unzipping the backpack like it was on fire. PeeChees and lunchboxes flying all over the place! He finally settles in at the table... Time to get serious!
"Red bird, Red bird what do you see?" I love this project. Their adorable little creations of the animals and their very good memorization of the story. He "read" through it so fast I barely had time to sit down.

And finishin' up strong with the "Mom, this is so easy" stuff... The boy is a number whiz!

As I sat at the table next to him, I saw Jared... Just 3 short years ago we were doing the very same packet of homework, from the very same teacher, at the very same school. And now, my baby is there, going to school all day...such a big boy! Time is flying for I certainly don't feel 3 years older, and I often wonder where does the time go.

Monday, September 19, 2011

So "Bountiful" might be an understatement!

Last week we faced the invasion of these nasty little squash beetles. I'm sure there's a more scientific name for them, but to me they were these super thick, gross, creepy crawly, yucky bugs that were killing my squash plants! So Thursday my dad sprayed the plants with the mighty bug killer! Which worked fantastically, but also put harvest on hold until today... That's 4 days that went by without picking any squash or cucumbers.  So today I thought I'd tackle the task and to my delight, suprise and also humor this is what I found.....

Yep! That's a wheelbarrow full of fresh garden produce! Well I shoul say, zucchini, yellow squash, and a variety of cucumbers! As I was pushing the load of veggies from the garden to the house I heard my grandma hollerin' from across the way, shocked at the "bountiful" harvest that I just collected. Of course, I took a few over to them and then wheeled my goodies on home.  Because we sprayed, they needed a good scrubbing before I could distribute anymore. So as I stood on my front step assessing the situation the only logical solution I could come up with was to just take it all inside!

So that's what I did! Wheeled that dirty ol' wheelbarrow into the kitchen and scrubbed and sorted! I have a sink full of cucumbers and a counter full of different squashes! All of them still just sitting there! I guess that puts shredding zucchini on the schedule for tomorrow and pickle making a little later this week!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

My Bountiful Garden

Last year was our first attempt at having a garden, and I must say it was quite productive! So much so that this year we have expanded our garden space and it now measures in at about 70'x100' and is fully fenced. (I am pretty sure this is so I cannot expand it again next year!) This year we also planted some vegetables in raised beds and our tomatoes in tires. This is our garden in the middle of June... We kind of got a late start thanks to weather, but I'm sure as did most people around here.
Just a few short months later I am finding myself with monstrous tomato plants that are invading the walkways and zucchini that seem to quadruple in size over night! These are not complaints mind you, I am very grateful for the bountiful harvest we have gotten thus far, but as you see it can be a bit overwhelming!

Our garden is filled with 8 rows of corn, 1 raised bed(box) of zucchini (5 zucchini plants... it's enough to supply the entire state with zucchini!), 1 box of yellow squash- crooked neck and yellow summer squash, 1 box of "gourmet" squash (yep that's a whole lotta some squash/zucchini), 1 salad box, 1 herb box, 1 beans/peas box, 1 hot pepper box (a definite must for the salsa makin!), 1 bell pepper/ broccoli box, 1 root veggie box, 15 cucumber plants- including 5 different varieties, 3 spaghetti squash plants, 40 tomato plants (remember that salsa I talked about... We make some spaghetti sauce too.) and our very own pumpkin patch!


As much as I find delight in watching my garden grow, I love watching my childrens' excitement! They are rigorous little creatures out there, helping me keep it weeded and building wind barriers around the boxes.

Their favorite time of harvest seems to be when it's "time to check the corn." I love watching throughout the summer as these tiny little sprouts emerge to the ground bringing smiles to my boys' faces. Almost overnight, they double and double again. Quickly approaching the height of my littlest gardener. He calls "Look Mom, it's as tall as me!" and a few short days later it's as taller and he calls "Look Mom, it's as tall as Bubba!" And now the harvest begins. Six rows of corn is quite a bit (the other 2 rows are "decorative corn" for the fall) and we are battling the worms trying to get the best corn before they do!

The first harvest puts a definite order on the dinner menu for corn on the cob, and rightfully so after all that hard work... shucking and cleaning, and of course getting all those pesky worms out, should definitely be rewarded with a nice, fresh, piping hot, slathered in butter, home grown piece of corn on the cob! MMMMMMMMMM!!!!